Flavours of Tel Aviv, and the best gift ever
The best gift is the one you did not know you wanted, but then minutes after it becomes fundamental. It happened to me with the amazing photographic set I got from the three wise men this christmas, and now I am fully aware that I have no excuses to shot shitty pictures!
Well, I have learnt this recipe during my time in Tel Aviv a few years ago, but in Spain I can buy a fairly decent hummus, so my laziness prevented me from trying it until yesterday. For those of you who do not know Tel Aviv, what are you waiting for? Book a flight now! During my almost 2 years as a postdoc, I had a wonderful time there, sometimes a bit hard with such a different culture but definitely a life experience. Talking about food, still now I sometimes close my eyes and try to imagine the smells of the bakery in Neve Tzedek where we celebrated the end of the winter (in February ;) ), or the taste of the halla bread sold in the market on friday in Rabin square, or the perfect consistency of the fried aubergines in the sabich sandwich in Dizengoff. It is THE place to be if you are vegetarian, or if you like vegetables: most of their recipes are meat-free, and their veggies have just a different, yummy taste. The connection with the photographic set is that Tel Aviv is the city where my husband and I started, and 4 years later, married, with a beautiful house in Alicante, he made me this great gift ;)
HUMMUS
2 cups dried chickpeas
2 spoons tahini sauce
half cup oil EVO
juice of 1 lemon
paprika
Keep the chickpeas in water for one night, then boil them in water for 3 hours or until tender (I used the express cooker, 20 minutes). Remove the skin (I know, a pain in the arse, but remember? this blog is called "cooking slowly"), then blend them with the tahini, the oil and the lemon juice. Add salt and a little bit of the water where the chickpeas were boiled. Here I served the hummus with oil EVO and paprika, and baked carrot sticks. Enjoy!
